The present invention relates to a knife for a cutting wheel for a food product slicing apparatus, and more specifically, to an improved knife having a replaceable insert member provided along a leading side of the knife and adjacent to a cutting blade of such knife.
Many types of food slicing apparatuses are known in which food products are transported into a rotating wheel having a plurality knives each with a cutting blade to cut the food products into slices. In the food processing industry, it is important that the food product be cut into slices having a uniform thickness without damaging the food product. Such thickness uniformity facilitates the further processing of the food product providing a maximum amount of usable food product with minimum amount of waste.
An embodiment of a known rotatable cutting wheel described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,992,284 and 6,148,709, of which are incorporated herein by reference, is illustrated in FIG. 1. This known cutting wheel comprises a hub 10, about which is concentrically arranged a rim 12 being interconnected by a plurality of knives 14. Each of the knives 14 has a knife holder 18 securing a cutting blade 16 with a cutting edge 20 facing in the direction of rotation of the wheel indicated by arrow 28. The cutting edge 20 of each knife 14 is located adjacent to a second edge 22 of an adjacent knife 14. The second edge 22 extends substantially parallel to the cutting edge 20 of the adjacent knife 14 such that a radial space or gate opening 26 is formed extending between the hub 10 and the rim 12 which has a constant circumferential dimension throughout its radial length.
As shown in FIG. 1, each knife 14 defines a back surface having a gauging portion 24. In operation, food products are fed into the plane of the cutting wheel so as to maintain contact with the gauging portion of the knives as they pass through the food product. The dimension of the gate opening will accurately control the thickness of the sliced food product.
An embodiment of the knives of the cutting wheel of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,992,284 and 6,148,709 is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. As can be seen, the knife 14 comprises the knife holder 18 on which the cutting blade 16 is mounted. The cutting blade may be permanently attached to the knife holder, or may be removably held by a clamping device. In this embodiment, the cutting blade 16 is held against a bevel surface 34 of the knife holder 18 by clamp 32 which is attached to the knife holder 18 by a plurality of fasteners 36. The clamp 32 engages the fasteners 36 by way of keyhole-shaped slots 38 which enable removal of the clamp 32 such that the heads of the fasteners 36 are aligned with the larger opening portion of the keyhole shaped slots 38. Locating studs 40 extend from the knife holder 18 and engage openings 30a and 30b in the cutting blade 16 to locate the cutting blade 16 on the knife holder 18.
The known knife holder 18 has a rear edge 22 formed thereon which extends obliquely with respect to the cutting edge 20 of the cutting blade 16. The knife holder 18 has a hub mounting hole 46 and rim mounting holes 48a and 48b formed therein for attachment to the hub and rim, respectively of a cutting wheel. Moreover, the width of the knife holder 18 at the hub mounting end is less than the width of the knife holder 18 at the rim mounting end.
Typically, the food product is transported through the cutting plane of the cutting wheel at a constant speed and the cutting wheel is rotated at a constant speed to produce slices having a generally uniform thickness.
It has been found with the aforementioned knives of the known cutting wheel that the leading edge of knife holder undergoes considerable wear or is subjected to chipping or bending when harmful debris damages the knife when slicing food products. As a result, the knife holder often requires replacement which results in downtime of the cutting wheel and thus, the food processing operation is undesirably halted. Replacement of knife holders is expensive due to their specifically dimensioned configuration, and considerable time is required to disassemble the knife from the cutting wheel and the components thereof, and subsequently reassemble the new knife holder with the components onto the cutting wheel. Moreover, adjustment of the knife holders on the cutting wheel is cumbersome and requires precision that may not be feasible when assembled on a cutting wheel with multiple knives.
Accordingly, there is a demand and a need for an improved knife holder wherein repair of such knife holders is greatly simplified and adjustment thereof is substantially facilitated.